Robert Burton (writer)

Robert Burton (born February 8, 1577 in Lindley , Leicestershire , † January 25, 1640 in Oxford ) was an English writer and Anglican clergyman and scholar.

Robert Burton

Burton spent most of his adult life as a clergyman and scholar at Christ Church College , Oxford. At first he wrote little successful dramas and insignificant poetry . Only his book Anatomie der Melancholie ( The Anatomy of Melancholy ), published under the pseudonym Democritus junior , which saw five continuously expanded editions during his lifetime and one posthumous edition, was a great success. It is a treatise on the physical-mental state of illness of melancholy , its history, causes and healing possibilities. Today it is considered to be the forerunner of the mental illness depression . In this book, Burton also popularized the metaphor " On the shoulders of giants ", the author of which is Bernhard von Chartres , and established the first forerunners of cognitive science .

Text editions and translations

Frontispiece of the Anatomy of Melancholy (1652)

Connie McQuillen (Ed.): Robert Burton: Philosophaster. Center for Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies, Binghamton 1993, ISBN 0-86698-123-3 (critical edition with English translation)
The anatomy of melancholy. From the English and with an essay by Ulrich Horstmann . Frankfurt am Main 2003, Die Other Bibliothek series , ISBN 3-8218-4529-5 .
The anatomy of melancholy. Translated from English, annotated and with an afterword by Werner von Koppenfels . 4th edition. Dieterich'sche Verlagbuchhandlung, Mainz 2006, ISBN 978-3-87162-007-2 .

Web links

Wikiquote: Robert Burton - Quotes

Literature by and about Robert Burton in the catalog of the German National Library
Burkhart Brückner: Robert Burton. In: Biographical Archive of Psychiatry (BIAPSY).

proof

^ Roy Porter : Madness. A little cultural history. Translated from the English by Christian Detoux. Dörlemann, Zurich 2005, ISBN 978-3-908777-06-9 ; Clark Lawlor: From Melancholia to Prozac. A History of Depression. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2012, ISBN 978-0-19-958579-3 ( preview on Google Books).
↑ Margery Corbett, Ronald Light Brown: The Comely Frontispiece. The Emblematic Title-Page in England, 1550-1660. Henley, London 1979, pp. 190-200.

personal data
SURNAME	Burton, Robert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	English writer and Anglican clergyman and scholar
DATE OF BIRTH	February 8, 1577
PLACE OF BIRTH	Lindley , Leicestershire
DATE OF DEATH	January 25, 1640
Place of death	Oxford

[1] Roy Porter : Madness. A little cultural history. Translated from the English by Christian Detoux. Dörlemann, Zurich 2005, ISBN 978-3-908777-06-9 ; Clark Lawlor: From Melancholia to Prozac. A History of Depression. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2012, ISBN 978-0-19-958579-3 ( preview on Google Books).

[2] Margery Corbett, Ronald Light Brown: The Comely Frontispiece. The Emblematic Title-Page in England, 1550-1660. Henley, London 1979, pp. 190-200.